KuCoin raises $150 million with a market cap of $10 billion to grow its Web3 platform

KuCoin, a global crypto exchange, announced a $150 million pre-Series B funding round, bringing its valuation to $10 billion. Led by Jump Crypto, the round saw the participation of multiple investment funds, including Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners. The exchange wants to use funds to further expand its Web3 ecosystem.

According to Johnny Lyu, KuCoin CEO, the platform is now valued at $10 billion, up from $100 million following its $20 million Series A financing in November 2018, soon after it launched.

Pre-Series B funding round led Jump Crypto, the Seychelles-based company, has raised $150 million, with participation from Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners, said in the company’s press release.

As per Lyu, KuCoin plans to use the new assets to expand its portfolio of crypto wallets, GameFi, DeFi, and NFT platforms, and DAOs. KuCoin has over 18 million users in 200 countries and is one of the largest exchanges by daily spot trading volume.

“This is how everyone is drawn into the ecosystem, and the ecosystem’s value is determined by the size and loyalty of these participants,” Lyu explained.

The platform, rivaling Binance, Coinbase, FTX, and Crypto.com, has been exploring opportunities in the Web3 ecosystem for some time. Late last year, it launched its investment arm, KuCoin Ventures, through which it makes both strategic and financial investments.

“This concept is essentially why we raised this round, web3 is about openness, and we want to build KuCoin into an open ecosystem and an open system needs to bring many friends on board. The world of crypto is so new that we want to make sure we can leverage all sources of information to guide our decision making, and these prominent investors can keep us updated on the latest trends,” KuCoin CEO said.

He stated that the venture arm’s asset under management has already surged to a “couple hundred million US dollars.”

Previously, KuCoin has gained popularity for listing tokens with small to mid-sized market cap. One of the popular ways some savvy traders made good profits earlier was heavily making bets on the new KuCoin was about to list, and selling them as soon their trading went live on the central exchange.

By Lyu’s words, providing users with high-quality potential projects is “one of our major strategies at KuCoin and one of the reasons why we are known as ‘People’s Exchange.’”

“As you can see, KuCoin, as the home of hidden gems, not only keeps track of real-time hot sectors in the industry but also deeply researches potential projects in various sectors all the way, even if it is a small or mid-cap token at a certain stage,” he claimed. “For example, we have listed many new projects in the world premiere way no matter through the normal listing or KuCoin Spotlight, KuCoin BurningDrop, in which many projects are turned out to be very high-quality and potential after a period of development. The premise of guaranteeing its huge potential and quality is that we have professional, all-around, and strict related processes.”

The platform said it has seen an increase in demand for centralized services over the years but is committed to catering to users who also wish to avail of some decentralized services.

“We noticed that some users would prefer to use DEX because it can be directly integrated with the wider crypto native ecosystem. Actually, we are exploring and developing decentralized products like the NFT marketplace – Windvane. In addition, KCC, jointly built by members of the KuCoin community and KCS fans, will also be an important aspect for KuCoin to build a decentralized ecosystem, with DEX and other protocols such as lending and stablecoins are building on it. We also have a P2P service for users who wish to convert fiat currencies to digital assets with the lowest fees and a high level of security,” Lyu noted.

Lately, the exchange is working to step up its efforts to support global regulatory requirements and is investing to enhance its security and risk management systems.

Tak Fujishima, Head of Asia at Jump Crypto, said in a statement:

“KuCoin provides a comprehensive platform of crypto services to a global audience, which is one of the many reasons we’re proud to lead this round. We are pleased to support the company as it continues to grow and expand its offerings in futures and margin trading, lending, staking, and passive yield generation to support the growth of web 3.0 and the crypto markets,” he added.

Launched in September 2017, KuCoin is a global crypto exchange for over 700 digital assets. It currently provides Spot trading, Margin trading, P2P fiat trading, Futures trading, Staking, and Lending to its 18 million users in 207 countries and regions around the world. According to CoinMarketCap, KuCoin is currently one of the top 5 crypto exchanges. Also, Forbes named KuCoin as one of the Best Crypto Exchanges for 2021. In 2022, The Ascent named KuCoin the Best Crypto Exchanges and Apps for enthusiasts.